History of Metacognition

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The concept of metacognition was developed by Brown and John Flavell about 40 years ago (Lin, 2001). Flavell defined metacognition as the knowledge of one’s own cognitive processes (Crain, 1988). This process includes information about when one understands and does not understand, or how one uses existing knowledge to reach a goal, and develop a problem-solving strategy (Gourgey, 1998). Likewise, Costa (1984) defines metacognition as the ability to know what one does not know. Costa also states that some people are unaware of their own thinking processes. Such people cannot explain the steps or strategies they use during the problem-solving action. They cannot verbalise the visual images in their minds. They rarely evaluate the quality of their thinking skills (Ganz & Ganz, 1990). Dirkes (1985) states that students who direct their own thinking generally do three things: associate their previous knowledge with new knowledge, identify thinking skills to solve a problem, and manage their time for learning purposes (Ganz & Ganz, 1990). Dirkes defines this awareness of students as metacognition. This awareness affects the understanding of what is learned and how the new knowledge can be used to solve a problem, as well as development of effective learning, development of critical thinking and problem-solving 

Here  we  have  collected  a  list  of  the  best  websites  that  explain  what  metacognition  is  and  how  it  can  be  used  to  help  learners  plan  and  manage  their  learning  to  get  the best  results.

These  are a few  websites  that we  recommend:

https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/metacognition/

https://www.lifescied.org/doi/full/10.1187/cbe.20-12-0289

Setting  goals  ,  evaluateing  your  progress in  acheiving  theses  goals,  figuring  out  what  worked  well and  what  did  not  work  these  are all metacognitive  questions  that  should  be  asked during  a  learning  process    

The following  artcle  is  a  study  of  the  approaches  of  two  students  in  their  study  for  a  biology  test one  student  exibits  very  good  metacognitive  skills  while  the  other has  no  metacognitive  skills   

Have  you  ever  read  something  and  then  later  discovered that  you  had  missed   something  in  the  reading?   

Have  you  ever  thought  you  would  remember something  and  later discovered you  have  forgotten it?

When   you  develop  metacognative  skills  you  will  be  able  to  manage  your  learning  and  memory.                                                                                                                                      

 You  will  become more  aware  of  the  things  you  are having  difficulty  learning  and  remembering.     When  you  become  aware  of  these difficultirs  you  become   more  aware  of  your  abilities  as  a  learner,  you  will  be  able  to  plan  and  monitor  your  progress in  every  learning  situation  or  in  every  situation  where  you  need to  rely  on memory .  Once  you are  aware  of  your  capabilities  and  limitations  you  will be  able  to  better use  your  strenghth  and build  strategies  that  will  help  you  deal  with  the  tasks  you  need  to  handle.  

knowing  what  you  do  not  know  is  a metacognative  skill